The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of an, unpatented proprietary Vriesea hybrid seed parent referred to as ‘V420-5’ and the pollen parent, an unpatented, proprietary variety of Vriesea hybrid referred to as ‘V602-6’. The crossing was made during March of 2002.
The new variety was discovered by the inventor, Herb Hill., a citizen of the United States, in September 2006 in a group of seedlings resulting from the crossing. The new cultivar was found in a research greenhouse in Lithia, Fla.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘V821-1’ was first performed at a commercial laboratory in Florida by tissue culture during March of 2007. During this time, no access to plants was available to the public. The first public access to the variety occurred August 2012. Subsequent propagation by tissue culture has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.